My tweets

[the_gneech]

• Sat, 14:10: Shh! #AmWriting at in-laws’ house while they’re not looking. Nobody tell!
• Sat, 14:13: I was also thinking of slamming my head in the door. https://t.co/EkIBGaLh6k
• Sat, 14:15: Discovery of airship travel speeds yesterday, combined with breakdown of story timeline today, shows a big hole in act one. #AmWriting
• Sat, 14:17: Unlike sail, airships take hours to get from one city to another, not days. So all that time standing around talking is out. #AmWriting
• Sat, 14:24: Hmph. @mlp_Rainbow never says that to @mlp_AppleJack! https://t.co/IFkdlR57vF
• Sat, 14:35: RT @malki: I nominate @davekellett for the Hugo in the category of Best Immediate Catch of a Typo in a Pal's Tweet
• Sat, 14:48: You know what would put a wrench into an airship’s schedule? A hurricane. #AmWriting
• Sat, 15:03: A neat tidbit about 5E fighters. http://t.co/FCF8XQvuQt
• Sat, 19:23: Ow, my tongue, ow, ow! #BiteBiteBite
• Sat, 20:19: RT @RealTimConway: The photo of my birth. https://t.co/pGue3YLind

• Sat, 20:25: Neat. :) https://t.co/VJlc5tOgAt
• Sat, 23:17: Broke down and drew a hex map of Calypsitania and environs. To accommodate airship speeds, scale of 120 miles/hex. #AmWriting
• Sat, 23:19: Using hex map broke down acts 1-2 into day-by-day breakdown based on where the airship could go when. Now see needed revisions. #AmWriting
• Sat, 23:20: Also can see likely prowl route for pirates, which is an added bonus. Can also see acts 3-4 will not work as planned. #AmWriting
• Sat, 23:24: OTOH new possibilities present themselves. Cool part of the setting that didn’t get to be in the book before suddenly in range. #AmWriting
• Sat, 23:27: Dunno if I’ll be able to work on it any tomorrow but I hope so. Not sure if I will work on act one rewrites or act 3-4 outlining. #AmWriting
• Sat, 23:29: In other news, I seem to be missing the Hugos. And by “missing” I mean, “Oh yeah, the Hugos are a thing.” ^.^'
• Sat, 23:29: I hope that maybe they’ll be relevant to me sometime in the next five years. We’ll see!
• Sat, 23:30: Ah well. Life carries on. Gnite world, and have an awesome tomorrow. :)
• Sun, 00:25: And now it's time for Gneech After Dark. By which I mean with the lights off 'cos it's late and I should be asleep.

• Sun, 07:56: *twitch* *twitch*
• Sun, 08:09: Not a word is said unless it reinforces prejudices. #MyTongueHurts #BiteBiteBite

Comments

Re: On Airship speeds ...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it's like the whole "a good craftsman cares about the back of the drawer as well" thing. Now that I know my timeline is verkackte, I can't just leave it there. Even if the reader never figures it out, I'll know!

-TG

Re: On Airship speeds ...

[smrgol-t-kirin.livejournal.com]

Since we don't know how far the destination is from the start point, the speed does not really matter. The time needed for the plot is what's important.

I'm still not clear as to whether the ships are too fast or too slow.

If they are too fast, increase the distance to the destination on your world.
If they are too slow, add a "several hours later" type phrase somewhere or just let the reader assume the extra time has passed. Alternately, move the destination closer on your world map.

Re: On Airship speeds ...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

The ships as I have written them are too slow, by an order of magnitude. Journeys I have listed as taking days, should take hours.

If I scale up the world to fit, it becomes huge. Like an area the size of the Caribbean becomes an area the size of the continental U.S. Possible fixes include:

• breaking the continent into islands that are separated by wide swaths of sea


• having the pirates have to hunker down during a hurricane


• slowing down airships (but they still need to have some advantages over sea/rail)


• something else entirely I haven't thought of yet ;)

I'll probably do a combination of these. Still hashing it out.

-The Gneech

Re: On Airship speeds ...

[smrgol-t-kirin.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not necessary to expand the size of the whole world, just put the destination further away on the coast.

Say, moving NY City up to Boston, or even Maine so the trip from DC takes longer.
Unless you are going to include a map, there is no way for the reader to know how far away the destination is.


The tech on your world may just allow for faster airships.

I am confused though,

"The ships as I have written them are too slow,"
contradicts
"slowing down airships (but they still need to have some advantages over sea/rail)"

Ways to discourage rail: Poor terrain, a greedy government that taxes them too much, expensive fuel (poor terrain would probably be better)

Ways to discourage sea travel - expensive fuel, not enough raw materials to build good ships, very rough ocean areas, poor coastlines for ports.